The present invention relates to devices such as audio-visual (AV) devices and personal computers (PCs) capable of recording and playing data of images and sound and devices having a function to receive and to transmit data of images and sound, and in particular, to devices having a function to enable, in a situation in which a plurality of devices are to be connected to each other, the user to connect the devices to each other without paying attention to a connection sequence thereof and to remotely control, by operating an arbitrary one of the connected devices, the other devices.
Recently, audio-visual devices have been broadly put to use and hence it is an ordinary practice that one user possesses several devices including a CD player, a television set (TV set), and a video player (VCR). Among the users, there has been increasingly desired to mutually connect these AV devices to each other so as to construct a so-called AV system. Consider a case as an example in which a VTR, a TV set, and a satellite broadcasting receiver are to be connected to each other. For example, or when video signals of a satellite broadcasting receiver are desired to be recorded in a VTR, it is necessary to connect an output jack of the satellite broadcasting receiver to an input jack of the VTR. Moreover, when video signals received by a satellite broadcasting receiver are desired to be displayed on a TV set, it is required to connect an output jack of the satellite broadcasting receiver to an input jack of the TV set. Additionally, there exists a problem of operability. In the present stage of art, the user can operate almost any such devices by a remote controller, which consequently leads to an undesired situation. Namely, there are arranged on a desk of the user as many remote controllers as there are the connected devices.
To solve the second problem above, various ideas have been proposed. For example, in accordance with a method described in JP-A-8-79847, there is prepared a remote controller including a liquid crystal display and all of the connected devices are beforehand registered to the remote controller such that the user touches an icon of one of the registered devices displayed thereon to thereby operate the device. Thanks to technology of the remote controller, all devices can be controlled by only one remote controller.
However, when the remote controller proposed in JP-A-8-79847, is adopted, there arises a problem that the user is required to beforehand register the icons of the connected devices to the remote controller and it is also necessary to register functions (such as recording and reproducing functions) that the respective devices have to the remote controller via an IC card and/or a telephone line so as to be stored therein. Additionally, the problem that users have to consider connection sequence, which was stated earlier, cannot be removed by the remote controller of the prior art.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a system and a device in which the user can connect devices to each other without paying attention to a method of connecting the devices to each other and without registering functions and the like of the devices and the user can easily and arbitrarily operate the connected devices.
To achieve the object above, there is provided in accordance with the present invention a system in which each of the devices to be connected includes an own device name memory to store therein device name data thereof and an own function memory to store therein function data indicating functions thereof. Furthermore, at least one of the connected devices includes a connected device memory to store therein device data items of all of the connected devices, a communication pair function memory to store therein functions of two devices communicating data therebetween, and display means such as a liquid crystal display in a remote controller or in a housing of the pertinent device or a display connection jack to connect a display thereto so that device name data and function data received from other devices are displayed thereon and a function selected therefrom is sent to a device selected therefrom to thereby operate the other devices. In this regard, it is assumed that the memory above indicates a storage or storage means.